“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hosea 6:1-3
Because of the resurrection and ascension of Christ we have a pathway to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). After making atonement and dying, Christ was risen on the third day and later ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father forever making intercession for His people.
The work has been done. Salvation has been accomplished. The gospel is good news, not good advice.
Therefore, let us know God!
What Is It To Know God?
The word “know” in Hosea 6:3 means to seek or to request. It conveys the idea of not merely knowing about but knowing intimately. Proverbs 24:14 uses this word when it says, “Know that wisdom is such to your soul”. In the verse before, it is talking about how honey is good and sweet. The idea is that as sweet and good as honey is to our lips, wisdom is such to our soul.
It is one thing to know about honey being sweet but another thing to experience its sweetness. Our experience of the sweetness of honey certainly does increase the more we know how honey is sweet. But we can’t truly know the sweetness of honey, no matter how much knowledge we have of it, until we actually experience it ourselves.
This is what it means to know the LORD. It is not merely to know about but to know intimately.
What Is It To Grow In Knowing God?
The prophet makes sure to impress upon the people that it is not ever fitting for the believer to be complacent in their knowledge of God. They are to “press on” to know Him. It means to refuse to stop. It is the Hebrew word that is used for pursuing someone in battle. The idea of this action is to develop a attitude of ceaseless pursuit of knowing God intimately.
How Do We Grow In Knowing God?
The people of Israel and Judah have known about God but not known Him intimately. As they stopped pursuing God they have grown to know less and less about Him. This call for them to repent is the call to study Him and delight in Him. You cannot do one without truly doing the other.
Knowledge without experience1 is as deceiving as plastic fruit on a dining room table. Experience without knowledge is as misleading as being in room full of mirrors. Knowledge without experience is arrogance. Experience without knowledge is ignorance.
Mark Jones has said, “Worship without knowledge is idolatry.”2 What’s at stake here is that we can’t worship God if we don’t know who it is that we are worshiping. If Israel and Judah were to worship God then they couldn’t do so without studying Him. At the same time, to only study Him and not worship Him is the epitome of blindness.
This means that if we are to grow in knowing God then we must grow in studying Him and delight in Him.
Knowing God By Studying God
To grow in knowing God means to study God. “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them” (Ps. 111:2). The logic of this verse is that if we delight in God then we will study more of who He is and what He has done.
What are practical ways we can grow in studying God?
Buy a good study Bible (such as The Reformation Study Bible, ESV Study Bible, or the Biblical Theology Study Bible)
Buy a good Systematic Theology (such as those by Louis Berkhof, John Calvin, Wilhelmus à Brakel, Petrus van Mastricht, or Herman Bavinck)
Memorize the catechism (such as the Heidelberg or the Westminster Shorter or Larger Catechism)
Memorize the Nicene Creed
Listen to some helpful lectures (such as the ones from Reformed Theological Seminary)
Read the best books
All of this is great but the biggest part of knowing God, and what will help solidify these other practices, is to frequently and regularly gather with the saints. You can’t know God by yourself. That always leads to idolatry. Knowing God involves knowing His people.
Knowing God Through His Means of Grace
God has given us means for knowing Him. And these means are not suggested or optional—they are ordained and commanded. Follow the logic of the Westminster Larger Catechism:
(WLC 152) Every sin deserves the wrath and curse of God.3
(WLC 153) God has given us a way of escape from His wrath by providing repentance of our sins and faith in Christ along with the diligent use of the means where Christ communicates to us the benefits of His mediation.4
What is important to note here is that Christ communicates to us the benefits our salvation that He accomplished through our using the means of grace (Word, Sacraments, Prayer). Stated very plainly, do you want to grow in experiencing the benefits of Christ’s salvation? Partake in the means of grace! They are not adding to Christ5 but are the very means through which Christ communicates Himself to you.
(WLC 154) The ordained means of grace are the Word, sacraments, and prayer which are made effectual to the elect for their salvation.6
(WLC 155) The Word is made effectual to salvation through the reading and especially the preaching.7 Through the preaching of God’s Word, Christians are enlightened, convinced, humbled, drawn out of themselves and drawn unto Christ, conformed to His image, subdued to His will, strengthened against temptations and corruptions, built up in grace, and established in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.8
This implies that we must prioritize the regular public reading and preaching of God’s Word. Indeed, we should greatly consider the benefit of both morning and evening worship on Sundays so that we can hear more of the preaching and reading of God’s Word.
What we notice here is that the way in which God causes us to know Him and grow in knowing Him is through the ordained (i.e. ordinary) means of grace.
In order to know God, one must attend regularly and frequently to the means of grace first in the corporate context and then privately. The promise of God is that these are effectual to His people. It is not a question of if they work but how God uses them to grow His people.
Healthy churches—biblical churches—are ones that prioritize and emphasize the means of grace. That is their primary plan for discipleship. That is the kingdom of God. That is the way people are converted and changed. That is how they are matured and moved toward heaven. It is not because of the sufficiency of the ministry or the church but because it is what God has instituted to grow His people.
Experience in this sense means experiential or intimate familiarity. The focus is not on the emotions or sensations.
Mark Jones, God Is (Crossway: Wheaton, IL 2017), p. 16.
Eph. 5:6; Gal. 3:10
Prov. 2:1-5; Prov. 8:33-36
This is not a “Jesus + the means of grace = salvation” concept. Christ has finished the work of salvation once and for all (Jn. 19:30). But, how does He deliver this to us? How does He convey it and minister it to us? By the Holy Spirit, Christ unites us with Himself and through the simple and ordained means of grace the Holy Spirit applies Christ and His benefits to us. It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:42-47
Neh. 8:8; Acts 26:18; Ps. 19:8; Rom. 1:16-17
If this list from the WLC doesn’t impress you then I don’t know what will. What other parts of ministry can do all that?